In The Grasslands

An old piece recently disinterred. It was done in 2008. The colors in the painting are less pronounced and bright than in this reproduction (photography is not my forte). In fact, aside from the white feather and some of the reds, the colors are drab, even sullen, and, apart from the yellow, without highlights. The somber colors remind me of how the light often looks before a storm. Maybe that's what I was trying to capture... that is, if I was trying to capture anything at all. After all these years, your guess is as good as mine. So I'll just assume I wasn't trying to capture any effect of light and that this was simply something fun to paint and let it go at that.

A Winter Heart

I'm just showing this one because Kathy liked it enough to frame it. It was done in 2003. I'm appallingly ignorant about Oriental culture and history. Kathy, however, lived in Japan for some time and fell in love with the country, so I did this picture for her. In my complete ignorance, this is merely how I imagined a woman from some vague past might have looked.

Merry Christmas!

From Potter's Sketchbook to you, here's hoping you have a most Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Herodias

Here is an image created in 2005. There's a small and uninteresting story about the origin of this piece and it's odd that I should remember it so vividly. I was in the attic one afternoon when the receding sunlight, playing upon a wall, made a transitory and haunting image of a woman's face in profile. I tried copying that face before it disappeared and later used that copy as a guide for the face of Herodias. The painting may not be much to look at, especially in reproduction since I'm so terrible at photographing my works, and even though I can't take credit for it since all I did was copy old Sol's artistic effort, I have to confess that even after all these years I still like the effect of that profile.

A Good Egg, All in All

Here's a piece done in 2006. Sarah would have been too old for fairy tales then, so I don't know what led me to paint what is supposed to be Humpty Dumpty. I doubt even all the king's horses and all the king's men would know either.

When He Returns

This painting was done in 2007 and is based on a photograph by my sister-in-law, Barb Stork. It shows a young Sarah with a dog named Patches. The photograph, like all of Barb's images, is striking, which is one reason Kathy wanted me to make a painting of it. As for the painting itself, for some reason I can't comprehend, there's something about it (maybe the light?) that reminds me of John Singer Sargent, even though this piece is woefully beneath his awe-inspiring abilities. As I told Kathy when we stumbled upon this long-forgotten work in the attic, it looks like something Sargent might have painted if Sargent didn't know how to paint. Still, as previously mentioned, the Barb Stork photograph it's based on is impressive. You can see some of Barb's work by visiting her website at www.barbstork.com. You'll be glad you did!

Four Days After

I haven't painted in what feels like ages, so I disinterred an old piece of canvas and started daubing oil paints on it with no idea or plan in mind. Unlike doodling with a pencil, one cannot take oil paints for a casual ramble and let them completely lead the way and go where they will, otherwise I'd blame the paints for the colors being too sweet. Since I'm not a very good photographer, the colors in this post are more candy-colored than the original, but even the original's colors are a bit over the top. Still, it was wonderful just holding a paintbrush again and I hope to do another painting before this century ends.